I got word of this work, called Pirates of Desire, a pirate tale that is co-authored by… you!

Made available through a outfit called Romance By You, part of a line offered by Books By You Publishing, this looks to be the continuation of the whole “insert name in text in books on demand” trend I remember as a kid that’s turned into the personalized books business. A quick Google search found lots of references, good and otherwise, to this field and how wide it’s gotten.

And while the vast majority of opportunities are still geared towards kids, the fact that there’s a whole line of books along the lines of Pirates of Desire means that some of the first readers have definitely grown up…

What’s interesting about the Romance by You line is how they have all these options to draw in what must be a large enough audience to justify having enough text for you to insert place your name into the tome. They have offerings for people who want to imagine themselves with vampires, werewolves, doctors, race car drivers…

…and pirates. Which means there’s still interest in the Sweet Trade, I guess…

So there’s now a chance for there to be a story of a tough woman on the high seas with your name getting romantically involved with a dashing buccaneer with a name of your choosing.

Well, there goes my career…

I mean sure, if you have wishes of projecting yourself into another realm through words, and not a lot of time to plot, research or write, then this quick and dirty expedient method may be for you. And I suppose if you didn’t want to get into the whole craft-versus-production debate, then this wouldn’t be an issue.

Unfortunately, I’m not going to be able to offer this as a gift to my beloved. I could just see me handing the tome to Susan, her eyes going over the title…

…and saying, “I gotta read more f’n’ pirates?” without a single twinge of irony…